August 3rd, 2008

By Sunday, the XRT Radio Compound is now home. It’s a nice place. There’s a couch, a cooler, a fan, water, gum and we have meal tickets for lunch and dinner. If we had a widescreen, I could live here.

We have spent most of our time in the park the last three days. If you’ve heard our backstage reports and interviews you probably can tell we are right behind the stage. We’ve been able to hear everything from both the ATT and My Space stages. The latter is directly across from us and it’s amazing how well the sound carries. We sometimes get hit with an audio blast that we figure is wind aided. Who knows? Loudest band from across the way was the first band on stage Friday, Bang Camaro. They had a huge male chorus of back up singers who made the band sound like a Def Leppard reunion, for better or for worse, but they were LOUD..

Headphones are standard gear for interviews so I can hear what the artists are saying. We ran into some good luck today when our old pal G Love stopped by with his guitar. I talked him into playing his new song, “Peace Love and Happiness “ live, a challenge in our little field studio. We put one mic between his legs for the guitar and I held the other right up to his mouth for the vocals. The luck comes into play when just as he’s starting the song, Chicago rapper Kid Sister’s set ends and the man from Philly is able to sing the song without competition. It’s excellent considering the conditions. The Backstage Performance is an XRT Lolla first!

A little later on, I get to bring G Love onto the stage. The view from up there is pretty breathtaking. I can see the expanse of the south end of the park flanked by buildings on one side, the lake on the other, Buckingham Fountain in full stream and a huge crowd right in front. I’m really struck with the city’s beauty and it drives home how unique a setting Grant Park is for a rock festival.

On Saturday I had a chance to sit down with David J and Kevin Haskins of Love and Rockets and it was refreshing to see how acerbic David J remains. Before we went on mic he voiced his disdain for the music of Brand New and during our chat he alluded to the problems of chemistry when they get together with Peter Murphy to become Bauhaus. Today they play the north end at the Bud Lite stage and rip through classic songs like Kundalini Express and Yin and Yang The Flowerpot Man. As David said in our interview, the songs are fresh and still relevant. You bet. Mark Ronson, Grammy winning producer for Song of The Year for Amy Winehouse’s “Rehab” stops by too. He talks how he made the transition from top NYC DJ to much in demand producer and in telling us who gave him encouragement he name checks Puffy, Jay Z and Biggie in the same sentence.

He’s really big time and his set across the field includes a full band, horn section and eight or nine different singers. He warms up the crowd for Kanye West, who’s trying to make up for his Bonnaroo debacle with a greatest hits set before a packed field of hometown supporters. I watch a little of that before taking my bike to the other end of the park. The bike is a great brainstorm for getting around. The fest has golf carts called The Fest Express, but I’m finding the bike to be a little more efficient, especially when I have to be at Monroe Street to introduce John Butler Trio and I have ten minutes to get back to Roosevelt to interview The Whigs. There was a cool moment on Friday while speeding on the bike down the LSD side of the park. A number of stages are right against the fence and as I passed each one I heard a bit of the music coming from each. It was like live mash ups of five different styles of music segueing perfectly into each other as I flew by. It was pretty cool.

Anyway, I go down to see Nine Inch Nails and from two miles a way I can still hear Kanye. He’s blasting it to the point where NIN fans are getting annoyed. That dies down quickly as Mr. Reznor picks up the power a bit and delivers a really intense show with amazing visuals. At one point the stage becomes like video snow completely engulfing the band. A spotlight cuts through the interference and carves out a hole where you can see Reznor singing and flailing about. Really cool visual. Then, Head Like A Hole blows out that end of the park as well as what’s left of my brain after this weekend. I need to rest my head on a pillow. As I leave, I take back what I said about living in the park. I could use a shower.

- Marty Lennartz

August 2nd, 2008

The biggest surprise on Day Two of lollapalooza was the weather. A near perfect summer day came from out of nowhere. OK, maybe it came from the breeze that gently blew off the lake sending Friday’s heat and humidity far away from Grant Park.

After the stifling nature of Day One, it was quite welcome. We really didn’t even need the fan that made the backstage XRT Radio Compound the oasis for all to relax and cool off.

One of the coolest performances on Saturday was provided by the self described “Satanic Everly Brothers”, The Gutter Twins. Greg Dulli and Mark Lanegan have incredible resumes that stretch back over the last 20 years. Dulli, leader of The Afghan Whigs and The Twilight Singers and Lanegan the voice of Screaming Trees, Queens of The Stone Age, The Soulsavers as well as nine solo records teamed up this year for an album called Saturnalia that features the near seamless blending of their two distinct voices. Harmonies from the most beautiful corners of hell.

Dulli is known for starting his shows in the wee hours of the morning so when I saw The Gutter Twins were due on stage at 2:30 it seemed about right, until I realized it was 2:30 PM, not AM. Nevertheless they seemed in good health and great spirits as they tore though a great set backed by an incredible band. The drummer was especially noteworthy.

I also got a chance to see The Ting Tings play songs from their debut album We Started With Nothing. The duo of Jules and Katie make a lot of music for two people. On the song, “Great DJ” the refrain is “The Drum The Drum” and Katie pounds a big bass drum when singing the song. She also pounded her finger and when they came over the XRT radio Compound to chat with us, her finger looked liked a 16-inch softball injury. All for rock and roll, eh? Wilco returned to Chicago later in the evening with a typically powerful set in front of a full field of fans on the northern end of the park. Dressed in custom made Nashville glittered Nudie suits, the band took the stage to a triumphant welcome home from the crowd. Jeff Tweedy said it’s good to be back and acknowledging the suits quipped, “We’ve been doing a lot of sewing”.

Among the fan favorites, they added in a new song that Jeff called “WIP”, work in progress. It was a classic solid Wilco song that suddenly erupted into an awesome Nels Cline guitar explosion, which then segued right into Spiders (Kidsmoke). It made the night.

- Marty Lennartz

August 1st, 2008

The one lasting image from Day One of Lollapaloza 2008 is one that will probably enter my all time top ten was during Radiohead’s, surprisingly mellow set. At least it seemed that way from where I was, maybe a 100 hundred yards to the right of the stage. That far away vantage point, though made the stage set, lighting and video screens a huge part of the show. But the moment that will stick was during Fake Plastic Trees, classic Radiohead from The Bends.

As the song built and built suddenly from behind the stage, off in the distance a fireworks display began. Looked like it was coming from somewhere around Soldier Field. Not sure if it was intended to be part of the show or whether it was from the Bears Open practice night on the filed, but it was timed perfectly. Too perfect. The grand finale of the fireworks came just as the song hit its amazing crescendo. The field erupted in cheers. Like I said, I don’t know whether it was meant to be that way, but Radiohead, Fake Plastic Trees, a fan sing-a-long and fireworks made for quite an experience.

Busy day at the backstage XRT Radio Compound. This year it’s tricked out better than ever before. We have a couches ad a fan! Even though the heat was blistering, we were cool, calm and collected. At least until our big rush of interviews that all showed up pretty much at the same time.

Ed O’Brien of Radiohead, Brendan Benson, Jack White’s partner in crime in the Raconteurs and Duffy all arrived around 5p. It caused a superstar back up. But it all worked out.

It was really cool to talk with Ed and Brian right before they both hit the stage with their respective bands for the two moat anticipated shows of the festival. We were pretty knocked and thrilled that Ed stopped by to chat about returning to Grant Park, the scene of Radiohead’s 2001 concert that pretty much opened the door for the city to sign off on Lollapalooza. Plus, it was the only interview Radiohead is doing for the entire tour.

Brendan took time to drop in less than an hour before hitting the stage. Didn’t seem to affect his performance as The Raconteurs ripped it up on the other side of the park. They have become one of America’s best bands, as you might expect from the assemblage of talent. Still, many times “super groups” just get by on their names. Not these guys. They have become a band in every sense of the word. The way Jack and Brendan split the vocal and guitar duties and how well Patrick Keeler and Little jack Lawrence mesh as a rhythm section is incredibly democratic. Pretty powerful too.

Also talked to Lollapaooza’s founder, Perry Farrell. He looked amazingly fit and energetic when he stopped by the compound as the fest began. He filled us in on the Lolla Scene and gave us his take on what to expect for the weekend. It was a treat to sit down with him and get his point of view. Really positive guy who you can tell is totally excited about his involvement.

- Marty Lennartz